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"Offensive forensics is an attack technique hackers use to capture non-static data that can be useful in performing further attacks," says Joe Sremack, Principal, Berkeley Research Group, LLC, a computer forensics and e-discovery firm.

In an offensive forensics procedure, the hacker captures non-static, in-memory data in order to acquire the passwords, encryption keys, or active network session data living there, which can aid them in gaining unrestrained access to precious data.

To illustrate, a simple example of an offensive forensics attack is one that captures the Windows clipboard, a place where less-than-savvy users often copy and paste their secure passwords. Hackers typically mount this type of attack through vulnerabilities in Flash.